Pittwater Online News

January 1 - 31, 2025: Issue 638

A Mid-Summer Irrawong Falls Walk

on Sunday 12 January 2025
photographs by Joe Mills

Fungi are the interface organisms between life & death. - Paul Starmers

After a bit of a break during Xmas - New Year 2024, we finally got back home for a bit of rest. So I decided to investigate the Irrawong Falls after having a couple of nights of on-off rain, including some big dumps.

My reasoning was that after this wet period there would be lots of fungi. This was not to be, and I only found one small bunch, and the dirt track was completely dry.

Nevertheless, I have included some pics I did take.

The big thing that stuck with me was the dense green undergrowth.

Enjoy the pics from mid-summer on the Barrenjoey Peninsula.

As always, enjoy nature.

Joe Mills

From Pittwater Council's 1996 Plan of Management for Irrawong Reserve:

The original inhabitants of the Reserve were most likely aboriginal people who lived in the area for several thousand years prior to European occupation. The local aboriginals were part of the Guringai group who inhabited the land between Port Jackson and Broken Bay (Koetig 1993).
Irrawong Reserve is identified as Crown Reserve 91364 for Public Recreation on 19 January 1979. Prior to this it was known as Crown Reserve 29375, notified on 20 May 1899, for Water Supply .
Irrawong Reserve is Crown land owned by the Department of Land and Water Conservation. Pittwater Council is responsible for the care, control and management of Irrawong Reserve.
Irrawong Reserve is an area of remnant bushland in the Warriewood/Ingleside area, at the southern end of the Warriewood Valley. The Reserve is approximately 4.45 hectares in area and located within the flood plain of Mullet Creek, forming the upper reaches of the same system as the Warriewood Wetlands.
Today the area is perceived as a mainly cultural landscape with remnants of the natural environment (Tropman and Tropman 1993). Irrawong Reserve is one such important vegetation remnant. The cultural land use patterns have been superimposed on the natural environment through land grants, sub-division, uses imposed by government zoning, development and transportation routes.
The Reserve contains the largest remaining stand of Swamp Mahogany (Eucalyptus robusta) in the Sydney region (Benson and Howell 1995). Cunningham (1994) considered Irrawong Reserve as an area essential for retention to conserve its significant vegetation characteristics. The vegetation understorey has been disturbed and shows a high degree of weed invasion. Bush regeneration work has been carried out in the Reserve for a number of years and continuation of the rehabilitation work is required if the bushland integrity is to be maintained.
Irrawong Reserve is considered to be an area essential for the retention of significant fauna populations and must, therefore, be conserved. The Reserve provides habitat for birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects and mammals such as flying-foxes and possums, and Swamp Mahogany is a favoured food tree species of the Koala in the Sydney region.

More on the History of the Reserve is available in:

Eeling in Warriewood's Creeks (Includes A Short History of community involvement in environmental issues/ campaigns in and around Narrabeen Lagoon - 1974 to present by David James OAM)

A History Of The Campaign For Preservation Of The Warriewood Escarpment by Angus Gordon and David Palmer

Dense undergrowth

Miniature flowers now in bloom of Tristaniopsis laurina, the Water Gum or Kanooka, a tree native to Australia, where it usually grows near the eastern coastline and along the banks of streams, where the trunks and branches tend to be shaped in the direction of the current and give an indication of flood heights.